“Dear Boy” is the fourth track on Paul McCartney’s second solo album (credited to both he and wife-at-the-time Linda) Ram, released all the way back in 1971.
Paul believed he was very lucky to have Linda as his wife, and wrote this song as a tribute to her. It is also an address to her former husband; they married years earlier in 1962 before divorcing in 1965. McCartney ‘tells’ him that he was a silly man to let Linda go, and that he will never find another one like her.
Although most of it is in a minor key, the dramatic, layered backing vocals and airy rhythm make things a little lighter. You can probably imagine the smugness he had when writing and singing this: “I hope you never know, dear boy, how much you missed/And even when you fall in love, dear boy, it won’t be half as good as this”.
“Deado” is the last track on Stephen Malkmus’ first ‘solo’ album after his former band Pavement split up. The term ‘solo’ doesn’t really count though; “Stephen Malkmus” was recorded by the band he formed immediately after, known by the name of The Jicks. Malkmus wanted to release it under the band’s name but the record label ‘insisted’ that he release it under his own. On iTunes and any other music service, you can only find the album under Stephen Malkmus, but I will label it under the group’s actual name whenever I do a song from this album.
When listening to the album for the first time, I couldn’t help but notice Malkmus’ enthusiasm in his vocals compared to those in Pavement’s last album “Terror Twilight”. From sounding like a guy who wrote his songs and sang them just to get them over and done with, he sounded more confident – ready to embrace the challenge of doing something new – and as a result the album is quite upbeat and fun, with some laid-back parts here and there.
“Deado” is very laid-back. The acoustic guitars, various synthesizer noises and sound effects and the double-tracked vocal give the song a hazy and ethereal feel. It’s the track that plays when relaxing and sitting in a chair in your back garden, or sinking your head into the pillow when you’re about to go to bed. Soothing stuff to the ears.
Lyrically, I haven’t a clue what it’s about. My interpretation of it is that, somehow, it is from the Ess-Dog’s point of view after becoming estranged from Jen who is referred to in the chorus (Listen to the preceding track “Jenny & the Ess-Dog” for more information). Apart from that… nah-I couldn’t tell you. The song ends with a minute ‘reprise’ of another song from the album “Vague Space” before fading to silence, bringing to a fine debut album to a close.
“Deadbeat Holiday” is the seventh track on Green Day’s sixth album “Warning”, released in 2000. The album is one of Green Day’s ‘softer’ albums with less of a punk rock oriented sound and incorporating more acoustic elements (thank you Wikipedia). For this reason, it is not one of the band’s most acclaimed albums. But at a time when punk rock was not as big, it showed that the band were able to look in a new direction.
For myself, “Warning” was the last Green Day album I listened to. The Green Day:Rock Band had recently come out and the only albums of theirs I physically possessed (and still do) were “American Idiot“, “Dookie“, “Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” (which is quite a strange choice looking at it now) and the “International Superhits!” compilation, which I got way before realising that compilations are not the way to go. Buy original albums, people.
“Minority”, the title track, “Waiting” and “Macy’s Day Parade” were tracks that I had heard when I initially started listening to Green Day about ten years ago. They were singles, and their videos were available to watch on the band’s website. It was only the album tracks I had to go through now, and “Deadbeat Holiday” was another that was rather enjoyable. It’s about living an empty life and feeling miserable which isn’t so great, but the narrator’s knowledge that they are not alone in this situation is somewhat of a comforter. It is very poppy though, which does lighten the mood.
I was seven when this song was released so I had no idea the song existed until about 2006. “Black Holes” was coming out, and MTV2 practically dedicated half-an-hour slots to the band so I can only guess that I found out about the track when its video came up during the time.
The track is not one of their most popular (not appearing on an actual album may have that effect on a song) but to be fair, it is just as good as anything on “Symmetry”. Very loud as expected from early-noughties Muse. Great vocals by Matt Bellamy… as always. Brilliant instrumentation from Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard. Overall, a decent track. And probably the most metal thing they’ve ever done.
The first time I listened to the Billy Talent’s fourth album “Dead Silence” (or fifth if you include their actual first album) I was lying in bed, ready to go to sleep and wake up for school the next morning. I tried to force myself to stay awake and pay attention to it, because Billy Talent are cool and it was their brand new album, but eventually I just became too tired and fell asleep about halfway through or so. However, I did regain enough consciousness to just about listen to the last few tracks.
The song is about trying to live in a time of war, with references to ‘soldiers’, ‘machine gun fire’ and ‘bombs’ in the lyrics, and ends with the narrator supposedly saying goodbye to his partner to join the army. Possibly. But Ian’s solos, various guitar licks, Ben’s passionate vocals and the pounding rhythm section of Jon and Aaron deliver a track conveying determination and hope for the future.
There is a music-during-the-credits-for-a-film vibe that I get from this track. I imagine “Swallowed Up by the Ocean” to be the music accompanying the sad ending, whilst “Dead Silence” captures the overall mood that the film delivers. I don’t know why. That’s just me.
